1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector for a card such as a small size memory card having an information storage function, the connector having an ejecting lever for ejecting the card in place.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a card connector in which an ejecting lever is supported rotatably and a push rod is connected to the ejecting lever. In this card connector, the push rod is pushed to turn the ejecting lever. The card in place is pushed out by the ejecting lever in the direction of ejecting.
In this type of card connector, in the starting stage of card ejection, that is to say, when the card in place starts to be ejected, it is necessary to give the ejecting lever the pushing force to overcome the great connecting force between a contact of the card used for signal processing and a terminal of the card connector. Therefore, in the starting stage of card ejection, it is desirable to push out the card with a comparatively great force. After the contact of the card is released from the terminal of the card connector, it is desirable that the card moves through a comparatively great distance.
To meet this requirement, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-82411 discloses a card connector in which the position of the fulcrum of an arm bar, that is to say, an ejecting lever is variable. This card connector uses a first fulcrum in the ejection starting stage in which the card is released from the terminal. The distance between the first fulcrum and the card pushing portion is small. After the card is released from the terminal, this card connector uses a second fulcrum. The distance between the second fulcrum and the card pushing portion is great.
In this card connector, when the card is released from the terminal, that is to say, when the ejecting lever starts to be turned to push out the card, it is possible to give the ejecting lever a comparatively great force to push the card because the distance between the fulcrum and the card pushing portion is small. Therefore, the card starts to be ejected smoothly. After the card is released from the terminal, although the force of the ejecting lever pushing the card becomes smaller than that in the starting stage of card ejection, the ejected distance becomes great because the distance between the fulcrum and the card pushing portion becomes great. Therefore, the card is ejected quickly.
In order to obtain great force pushing the card in the ejection starting stage, and to obtain great ejected distance of the card after the card is released from the terminal, the card connector described above has the structure in which the position of the fulcrum is shifted during the turning of the ejecting lever. That is to say, in this card connector, the ejecting lever is turned around a plurality of fulcrums. Therefore, turning of the ejecting lever tends to be unstable and the ejecting performance tends to be degraded. There is concern that the reliability of the card connector is thereby lowered.